Today in London, Jamie Thomas, Vice President of Tivoli Development and Strategy, IBM Software, discussed the critical role of technology in unleasing innovation to turn an explosion of data into new insights, transform business models for unprecedented rewards, and remove barriers between themselves and customers. Virtually everything is being enriched with new levels of computing power. The key takeaway: Now is the time to rethink IT to reinvent your business.

Rethinking IT in terms of reinventing business might seem a daunting endeavor with so many factors impacting the organization:

Technology

Market

Macro-economics

Regulations

Globalization

Socioeconomics

Environment

Geopolitics

While all of these factors influence one another, technology has become the number one external factor impacting organizations according to IBM’s latest CEO study. Over 60% of CIOs view cloud as critical to their plans to speed up service delivery. At the same time, organizations are increasingly leveraging mobile devices, further extended by BYOD policies. Over 700 million smart phones and tables will ship this year, a whopping 34% more than in 2011. Not to mention over 20B machine-centric devices already deployed that are essential to enabling business operations and business models.

The net? Efficient service delivery will generate 2.7 zetabytes of digital content in 2012 – an increase of 50% in one year.

Business and IT leaders must determine the impact of this data storm to their organization before mapping out a custom transition plan. You need a plan that will ensure the infrastructure is optimized to anticipate and react with agility to rapid changes, wherever they come from.

What won’t change from organization to organization are the four major challenges required for transformation to continuous innovation:

Speed up service delivery from months to minutes

Increase sales and promotions

Recognize and repair issues before impact

Shrink time to secure critical data

IT Leaders: do you have a plan to transform the IT shop from a cost center into a strategic hub for identifying growth opportunities?

CxOs: are you confident that your business is engaged in continuous innovation as you address changing priorities to keep from being left behind?

Hey Kids! It’s be a while since I posted on the Pulse blog. What’s been keeping me away? New job responsibilities outside [*GASP!*] the scope of social media. More on that another time. Today I have more important things to share with you.

For the past few years, IBM has been sending camera crews around the world to record as much as we can at our events. At some of the larger events, we also stream some of our sessions and interviews live. This is a key component of events today, in that it opens up the event to a much larger audience. Hint, hint.

For the first time, we are streaming live from Pulse Comes to You in London next week on May 30. The event will be attended by over 400 IBM clients and business partners, but we can expand that audience to virtually as many that want to be the first to hear our news next Wednesday. If you are still sleeping while we stream in real time, you can watch the replay while you have your morning coffee.

And if after reading the rest of this post you think my new professional assignment is the consequence of bad spelling, you might be right I'm just getting ready to ride in a car on the wrong side of the road.

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

Key Note 1: Optimising the World's Infrastructure
Jamie Thomas, Vice President of Tivoli Strategy and Development.
Jamie will discuss the critical role of technology in unleashing innovation, including cloud, mobile enterprises, smarter physical infrastructures and security.

Key Note 3: IBM Watson goes to Work
Dale Lane, Software Developer – DeepQA (Watson), Emerging Technologies.
Dale will talk about the work that has been done to apply Watson’s technological breakthroughs to real-world problems, as well as some of the plans for Watson's future.

In today’s edition of the Huffington Post, Marie Wieck, General Manager of Application and Integration Middleware, IBM Software Group wrote:

“The CIOs I talk with describe the avalanche of projects they face. Almost three quarters of the CIOs say they are investing in mobile deployments this year, of which one-third of those will be deployed in a cloud. However, 70 percent of their budgets, on average, are still spent on maintenance and 34 percent of their projects are late. It's a vicious cycle.”

Jamie Thomas, VP of Strategy & Development, IBM Tivoli will join Marie later this month at IBM Impact to help address how businesses can navigate through the “avalanche of projects” by turning these barriers to innovation into capabilities:

Delayed delivery of new applications and services

Inflexible development & delivery lifecycle

Marginal quality of applications and services

Discontinuous feedback preventing solution iterations

Inconspicuousness of impending problems

How do you turn barriers into capabilities to accelerate applications to market? That’s the magical part. Achieving agile service delivery requires improved visibility, control and automation. Development and operations teams must respond to market changes faster with unparalleled, fully automated tooling and infrastructure.

But Jamie won’t be waving any wands. You don’t need to when you lead an organization rich in deep expertise, client experience, standards based platforms, and end-to-end capabilities.

Responsible for driving collaboration across an organization committed to developing innovative tools and technologies, there’s no one who knows more about the IBM capability of quickly developing, testing, deploying, and monitoring applications. Tweeter @boosc, who saw her present at Pulse, agrees:

The Pulse blog is pleased to present today's guest blog by Kristof Kloeckner, General Manager of Rational Software, IBM Software Group

Based on discussions and interactions with clients, a common theme has emerged - the gap between development and operations groups (people, processes and technologies). This gap diminishes business agility, the ability to respond to market demands quickly with new applications or solutions. It can also lead to quality problems with deployed applications resulting in higher costs, service disruption and service quality issues. Some of the root causes for these challenges are:

Lack of visibility across the teams hinders collaboration and causes inconsistent manual handoffs as well as configuration and infrastructure mismatches

Deployment requirements are difficult to validate and it is tough to mimic production in dev and test environments

Moving applications from development to staging to production is a complex series of steps. Deployment engineers often execute manual steps which are not repeatable, and prone to error

It is extremely difficult to integrate and automate these processes, as well as standardize maintenance and reuse given the heterogeneous nature of the environment with products from different vendors and open source tools.

Together Rational and Tivoli have been working with customers to address some of these challenges and we have introduced capabilities which include; Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) for Agile development and delivery, Deployment Planning and Automation (DP&A) for constructing deployment topologies and deployment automation and SmartCloud Provisioning for quickcloud deployment and automated provisioning.

By way of example, Danske Bank deployed these capabilities and reduced their average time of development projects from 14 months to 9 months while improving efficiency by 15%. Through automation, Sun Trust improved hand-off times by 98% while cutting deployment related issues by 93 %. And a leading tire manufacturer moved to agile processes and accelerated their development models by 30%

Based on these and other deployment scenarios, we are now working with a few select clients on a more integrated lifecycle management solution for Continuous Delivery, which we plan to make it available to a wider set of customers as part of a managed beta program in April. What does it mean to have continuous delivery? It means that the applications built by our clients are production-ready throughout the lifecycle and can be released to end users at any time, reducing the cycle times significantly. These capabilities are built leveraging open standards, enabling clients to leverage existing investments and the cloud. Some of the capabilities planned for the beta include:

We believe that these capabilities will help provide you with end-to-end feedback loop from your customers, from development, to operations, rapid release of new versions, increased velocity of change while reducing risk, leverage real-time planning, enable in-context collaboration, ensure lifecycle traceability and apply development and operational intelligence.

My Rational colleagues and I will be discussing these customer patterns and the solutions in more detail at Pulse. Looking forward to the discussion!

With the emergence of the technologies that make smart grids possible, customers have new levels of information and control. At Pulse 2012 you will hear how utilities are managing their smart grid from a comprehensive, cross departmental perspective, that spans from pro-active maintenance, to modern IT enabled networks, to security and beyond!

At Pulse 2012 hear from 35+ IBM Energy and Utilities clients on topics as diverse as regulatory requirements, asset management for utility operations, smart grid infrastructure and supply chain lifecycle activities. Pulse 2012 will also be featuring the latest technology initiatives and next-generation solutions offered by IBM and our business partners, including:

Smarter Energy demonstrations that show how IBM can help utilities manage intelligent meter networks, mitigate security risk, and comply with regulatory and operational mandates using visibility, control and automation capabilities from IBM.

IBM Maximo Spatial demonstration is focused on the core utility lines of business: distribution, transmission, fossil/hydro generation and nuclear power including meter asset management and will show the spatial enablement of Maximo Asset Management with ESRI's ArcGIS Server.

When people ask me what Tivoli does or what is service management, my first impulse is to launch into this:

IBM Service Management represents an evolutionary leap forward in managing services. IBM Service Management provides the integrated Visibility, Control and Automation™ that you need across business and technology assets to help overcome roadblocks to innovation. It enables you to better achieve your business objectives and maximize the value from all of the assets that support your operation.

But its even easier than that. We do what any good business must: save customers time and money, while enabling them to delight their own customers. For instance, the gecko and the hairdo keep telling you every day of your life how easy it is to save with them. What they don't tell you is that those savings would be impossible without loads of data housed in systems run on software that organizes chaos to help make business sense. That's what we do. Of course, there is a lot more to the story and we hope you'll come to Pulse for the rest.

Here's a little something to dance in your head while you score holiday gifts online this season:

At Pulse, we're going to showcase what we do best. We're also going to bring brand new solutions, roadmaps for forthcoming development, sessions with domain experts and real human clients, and solution demos that show you how to save money and keep customers coming back to you.

We'll have some fun too. I'll tell you more about that later.

Pulse 2012 is March 4-7 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Early Bird registrationcan save you up to $700 but the offer expires on December 16.

Though you may still be in a Tryptophan cloud, you can get a Cyber Monday deal on IBM Cloud stuff by registering for Pulse today! Don't wait until March 4, and don't even wait until December 16 (when this offer is over for good). Do these three minute steps right now save an extra $700 on your Cyber Monday savings adventure!

And any other awesome firm that is willing to collaborate with IBM by showcasing your business and technology leadership at Pulse.

The benefits are simple, but long reaching. We estimate over 7000 people will pass through the Pulse Expo. And with them, limitless opportunities to progress and develop leads in an environment super charged with the brightest talent, sharpest skill and most focused energy in the industry. If you were there last year, you know what I am talking about and are probably already committed to a Pulse 2012 sponsorship.

Although half of the sponsorship opportunities are still available as of today, they are being scooped up faster than previous years. Friends, now is the time to lock in your Pulse 2012 Expo Sponsorship. Book before December 16 and save a hefty $5K, unless you are a Pulse 2011 Sponsor Alumnus, then you save $10K. These are going fast, and it's no wonder. Just don't say I didn't tell you about it.

Every year, about this time, the creative juices start to flow as we start to gear up for IBM Pulse. Which stream will have the most interesting success stories? Which industry will produce the most creative abstract for a client presentation? What will energize clients to participate at Pulse? Who will get their 5 mins of fame at Pulse? All good questions! Let's see if I can help to answer them.

For years the Enterprise Asset Management track has been one of the largest at Pulse. This year, under the Smarter Physical Infrastructure stream, EAM will have 84 sessions. New this year will be 24 sessions under the "Industry case studies" track, which will no doubt produce some interesting submissions. Last year we had an agricultural industry submission that drew rave reviews. Refer here to see the diversity of industries in Latin America that were covered......from the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) story to Cristal Chile a bottle manufacturer .

Maximo Asset Management solutions have a broad industry presence and we hope that by having 24 sessions dedicated to industry case studies we will be able to touch as many industries as possible. Have you submitted your proposal yet? Click here to submit.

Another incentive that we created this year in order to solicit your creativity, is the 'If only I had Maximo" home video campaign. If you are anything like me, as I encounter the daily tasks of maintaining a household, I'm constantly wishing I had Maximo to help with the maintenance, upkeep and warranty records for my house. I mean who wouldn't want an automated work order generated directly to take care of all of the machinery around the house and implement preventive maintenance schedules?

Of course Maximo isn't for home use, but we created this campaign (click here) to see if we had any creative folks out there who were looking for 5 mins of fame at Pulse. We think that this will also be a good way to expand our social media presence and get the community more engaged. How many of you are following our blog ? Are you a member of our community? We continue to grow and are always posting the latest & greatest activities for Maximo.

Take a look at our latest video which I filmed on a local goat farm.........can you see the similarities to the CNA story?

I hope this has inspired you to create your own home video & submit it for your 5 mins of fame at Pulse. Reminder of the link.

Today's Pulse blog is submitted by David Boye, IBM Program Manager for Tivoli Storage.

Interested in sharing your story about IBM's storage solutions at Pulse this year? The Pulse 2012 Call for Papers is in full swing! We encourage you to speak about how your storage management solutions help you maximize and protect information. Your session can address best practices or your companies' implementation story.

Your presentation might also outline insight into trends and dynamics that are shaping your industry. If you choose to follow this approach, describe any background materials you will be using to illustrate your point. Details are good! A thorough description of the best practices, value proposition, or technical aspects you plan to discuss will help us understand and evaluate the proposal.

And if you are interested in participating in a panel discussion related to your area of expertise, make a note of that in your submission.

Speaking at Pulse is a great way to increase your profile among a group of elite professionals and maximize your conference experience. And....clients and Business Partners who present at Pulse are eligible for complimentary admission to the conference (one per company, per session).

Some ideas for your Storage presentation could include:

Storage and Cloud: Discuss the role of storage in the cloud services and how your IBM storage solutions can restore operations quickly following any type of data disaster, while ensuring optimal utilization and performance of storage resources in the Cloud.

Backup and Recovery: Talk about how your company protects data by storing backup copies on offline and offsite storage, and employs multiple smart-data techniques to make data backups.

Business Continuity Service Level Protection: Discuss your requirements and implementation of IBM solutions for high data availability and quick recovery from downtime in order to stay competitive.

Storage Virtualization: Talk about how your company was able to reduce the complexity and costs of managing SAN-based storage environments. Discuss how IBM storage virtualization solutions helped you address this.

As the November 7 deadline to submit Pulse 2012 session proposals approaches, I realize some of you might be waiting for some spark of inspiration to submit your proposal. Here are FIVE reasons to take the stage at Pulse.

5. Raise your profile with a key audience of 7000 influential pros.

You have something to say and we want to listen.

4. Get in free!

Only one speaker per company, per session qualifies for the free speaker pass. We also need to make sure we are allowed to give you a free pass. More information here

3. Hang out VIP style!

Exclusive Client Speaker VIP lounge. Nuff said.

2. You've already done the hard part.

You already solved those nasty problems you worked so hard on. Just submit an abstract of 100 words or less by November 7 for consideration. It should align to one of our tracks. Like this but your own story:

1. Your leadership is in demand.

Pulse is the place where innovative leaders collaborate in an effort to optimize the world's infrastructure. Speak at Pulse and lead the way in solving some of today's most pressing challenges.

The descriptions of our streams and tracks are not yet posted on the website, but you can read about them here, then submit your proposal to any of the following tracks at

http://bit.ly/oaAv2b

Then register for the LIVE#ibmpulse 2012 Webcast 9/28 where you can get all the details on speaking at Pulse, including whether or not you are eligible for a free pass!

Stream 1: Cloud and Smarter, Flexible Infrastructures

Businesses rely on their data center technologies to enable rapid innovation and the agility needed to respond quickly in today's highly competitive environment. Change management, provisioning, monitoring, scheduling and other key IT processes require a robust platform that can deliver services in a variety of ways, including virtualization, cloud computing and other delivery options. This stream will bring together clients, end users, systems integrators, IBM Business Partners and service management experts from across IBM to share best practices, roadmaps, real-world experiences, implementation examples and more.

Track 1: Service Delivery and Process Automation
The ability to quickly transform a business requirement into a business service is fundamental to the success of today's organizations. This track focuses on how IBM Tivoli can help create an effective approach to managing service requests, incidents, change and configuration, and provisioning with an integrated set of IT service management solutions. Submit to this track

Track 2: Service Availability and Performance Management
If you're in operations, you understand the pressure to ensure high service availability and performance. This track will illustrate how IBM solutions provide the visibility and control required to manage critical business services in dynamic conditions in ways that are cost-effective and seamless to clients. Presentations will emphasize best practices and implementations – highlighting the use of common integrations, such as navigation, workflows, visualization and reporting.
Submit to this track

Track 3: Storage Management
IBM offers an extraordinary range of systems, storage, software and services based on decades of innovation -- all designed to maximize and protect information, a critical business asset. This track will explore how storage management solutions can address this challenge through a wide range of presentations that include best practices, implementation stories and case studies.
Submit to this track

Track 4: Collaborative Development and Operations
This track covers collaborative development and operations across the lifecycle in the context of service management, focusing on the principles of ITIL and other IT process methodologies. Key topics will include organizational collaboration, application performance, automated deployment and cloud computing. Ideal for architects, developers, process, and operations managers this track will highlight success stories and panels from clients and industry experts on how organizations can accelerate the delivery of high quality applications and services.
Submit to this track

Track 5: Cloud and New Models for Service Delivery

Cloud computing and new delivery models are transforming the client experience and the economics of service delivery. This track will explore how private and public clouds can be securely harnessed – whether you choose to build your own, leverage prepackaged solutions, or have cloud delivered as a service. Sessions will explore how clients can successfully secure, visualize, and ensure the performance of virtualized and hybrid environments.

Track 1: EAM Best Practices
In this track we will discuss and highlight techniques, processes, activities, and or incentives deemed extremely effective in delivering world-class best practices at your organization. Sessions will highlight quantitative and qualitative ROI and Return on Asset (ROA) data such as equipment uptime, inventory carrying costs, labor utilization, regulatory compliance, and maintenance operations.
Submit to this track

Track 2: EAM Implementation and Upgrades
This track will feature customers sharing their implementation or upgrade stories from legacy versions to the latest release including planning, tools and tasks involved, post implementation/upgrade review, and the improvements they have leveraged in architecture, functionality, security, and scalability.
Submit to this track

Track 3: EAM Extended Usage
Sessions in this track are designed to showcase the value of Maximo and TRIRIGA through their functional add-ons. Areas of interest for Maximo may include mobile, scheduling, linear, spatial, asset configuration manager, service provider, service request manager, and HS&E. Areas of interest for TRIRIGA may include request central, workplace reservation manager, strategic facility planning, viewer, application builder, and mobile to name a few.
Submit to this track

Track 4: EAM Technical Sessions
These technical sessions are designed to be co-presented by an IBM subject matter expert and a client or group of users in a panel setting. Areas of interest may include: workflow, reporting, migration, monitoring, archiving, and integration. Clients submitting an abstract will be mapped with the appropriate subject matter expert.
Submit to this track

Track 5: Maximo Utility Working Group (MUWG)
IBM is pleased to announce that the Maximo Utility Working Group (MUWG) agenda will focus on electric, gas, water and wastewater presentations and incorporate the new Maximo Supply Chain Users Group presentations. Waves of change brought by deregulation, globalization and new regulatory requirements have brought new challenges. Share your story on how you are leveraging Maximo to address these issues and other key challenges at your plant.
Submit to this track

Track 6: EAM Industry Case Studies
In this track we would like to hear from a multitude of industries: Energy, Manufacturing, Transportation, Chemicals & Petroleum, Mining, Life Sciences, Telecom, Facilities, Finance, and Public Sector – including State, Local, and Federal Government users, to highlight how you have addressed your industry- specific challenges with TRIRIGA and IBM Maximo Asset Management, more specifically by using one of Maximo’s industry solutions.
Submit to this track

Track 7: Smarter Buildings
This track features IBM solutions for Smarter Buildings that allow building owners and managers to analyze and optimize real estate and facilities operations. IBM solutions for Smarter Buildings help customers create energy, operationally and space efficient buildings and helps them do so in a sustainable manner.
Submit to this track

Track 8: Smarter Cities
This track features IBM Smarter Cities solutions that allow customers to synchronize and analyze efforts among sectors and agencies as they happen, giving decision makers consolidated information that helps them anticipate—rather than just react to—problems so they can manage growth and development in a sustainable way.
Submit to this track

The boundaries of today’s business infrastructures are being extended and sometimes obliterated by the emergence of cloud, mobility, social business, big data and more. Where does your business ecosystem start and end? Whom do you trust and whom do you not? We’ll address these key security and compliance challenges in this track, demonstrating how IBM’s security intelligence solutions can become the enabler of a business without limits.

Track 1: Securing Emerging Technologies
Embracing new technologies, such as virtualization, cloud, and mobile computing, is an important aspect of how organizations stay competitive. However, the same technologies that can accelerate efficiencies can also pose new security challenges. This track will highlight how IBM can help you stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape and at the same time leverage the innovations made possible by emerging technology.
Submit to this track

Track 2: Securing the Infrastructure and Mitigating Threats
A secure infrastructure is not a static infrastructure. Every day, organizations have to face new security challenges, and the most successful organizations will be the ones that can not only react to these new challenges, but also anticipate them. In this track, we’ll review some of the latest threat research and provide insights on how you can mitigate those threats, and optimize your infrastructure at the same time.
Submit to this track

Track 3: Managing Compliance and Audit for a Secure Organization
Regulatory and industry requirements—which are often disconnected or even contradictory—are increasing, making it difficult for enterprises to keep up without draining valuable resources. This track will focus on what it means to effectively manage compliance and audit in a world where the only constant, is constant change. Sessions will feature best practices and user experiences with designing, enforcing and monitoring security policies for users and their activities, information, systems and processes.
Submit to this track

Stream 4: Leveraging Mobility

This track will explore how mobility is playing an increasing role across the enterprise. From standard voice and data services to business critical applications, mobility technologies are becoming critical to business operations. This stream will explore challenges around delivering and managing wireless mobility technologies, highlighting how visibility, control and automation play a vital role in the deployment and adoption of new services.

Track 1: Service Assurance for Communications Service Providers
This stream will explore how effective network and service assurance enables control of the entire communication and content management infrastructure. It will discuss strategies and methods for gaining greater visibility into how key network and application elements impact service quality and delivery. Sessions will highlight best practices and client experiences across service quality management, event and performance management and other OSS/BSS functions.
Submit to this track

Track 2: Cloud Service Providers
Communications service providers (CSPs) around the world are looking for smarter ways of doing business. This track will explore the challenges around the deployment of a cloud services environment. It will feature customers who have expanded their portfolio of offerings to cloud and highlight how CSPs can quickly and cost-effectively create, manage and monetize public and private cloud services.
Submit to this track

Track 3: Mobility and Endpoint Management
This stream will explore how mobility is playing an increasing role across the enterprise – spanning the broad array of mobile devices, endpoints and networks that support enterprise mobility. From hot topics such as endpoint management and security and mobility technologies from Lotus, this track will cover how progressive companies are leveraging technology to enable companies to conduct business in entirely new ways.
Submit to this track

Submit your proposal a line with any of the above tracks at http://bit.ly/oaAv2b

The Pulse and User Group teams at Tivoli invite you to take advantage of an exclusive opportunity at your local Pulse Comes to You (PCTY) event. When your User Group members attend your local event, we'll reserve a VIP area dedicated for your networking, lunch and meeting space following the event. Or, you can choose a mini-booth to promote your user group and recruit new members.
For more information, contact Hope Ruiz at hruiz@us.ibm.com.

The following videos feature Tivoli User Group members who leveraged PCTY Austin as an opportunity to meet up.

Let me give a huge THANK YOUto everyone who stopped by the Client Hospitality Lounge at Pulse 2011! It was a pleasure to see you and hope to see you again next year!

I wanted to share a few pics and recap the 2011 Lounge experience and hopefully encourage even more IBM Clients to attend in 2012. :)

(Pic: Janice at the lounge)

Other than the fact that it took me a week to regain feeling in my feet, Pulse 2011 was a smashing success!

We had so much going on for our IBM clients that the Hospitality Lounge was a whirlwind of activity most hours of the expo and it was certainly exciting to be able to watch it unfold. I was honored to meet so many people I had only previously had a chance to tweet with or read their success stories online, as well as to see so many repeat clients who I had recognized from my previous two years of Pulse.

The first night we opened with a martini bar and Mikey, the world’s best bartender, willingly served crowds of clients and IBMers that came in to network and kick back.Lots of clients took advantage of the opportunity and filled out reference forms and benefit surveys, earning them some nifty IBM gear that you can buy online at the logo store. If you missed filling out a reference form contact your IBM representative (or myself directly) and we will make sure you get the chance to be a part of theIBM Customer Reference Program.

On the second day, the lounge guests were treated to ice cream bars and soda which were pretty much gone by the end of the day :) and I have to admit that I indulged a little!

Day 3 we had chips and soda as well as a steady flow of traffic…see for yourself:

We also had a very special person hanging out at the lounge this year, an IBM Tivoli Case Study Writer Ilana Reynolds.If you are at Pulse next year make sure to check and see if Ilana is there so you can do a case study interview on the spot! Case Studies are a great way for IBM Clients to share their innovative success stories through various outlets on IBM’s dollar. They’re also a way to have easy access to experts, VIP treatment, and networking opportunities.

(PIC: Ilana at the lounge)

If you went to either of the General Sessions (which I hope you did because they were amazing!) you might have heard about a little program called IBM Client Connections (or Client Connect). This is a growing program that started last year to help current and prospective IBM Clients connect in order to help them share insight, problem-solve, get tips and tricks, or explore new avenues as well as network.

Day 2 – 4 of Pulse we had tons of clients come to the lounge specifically looking to meet with other IBM clients, which was very exciting! This year we are working on creating a database that will allow us to set you up with a specific client based on job-level, geography, products/solutions, history, status, industry, you name it!In the meantime if you would like to participate in the IBM ClientConnections Program contact me or your IBM rep and we will hook you up.

Here is a pic of some of the connections that were happening in the lounge:

A lesson learned: next year I will bring a better camera and more benefit surveys :P

Now I’d like to take a moment to ask for YOUR opinions!Please use the comment section to provide feedback on your lounge experience this year. I want to know what you liked, what you didn’t, and anything else you feel like sharing.This info will help us ensure that we provide you the best experience in the coming years at Pulse.

So once again, thank you so much for visiting!If you didn’t have the opportunity to stop by the lounge this year make sure you put it on your Pulse 2012 to-do list and I’ll see you there! :)

I heard that the folks presenting a Cloud demo at Pulse are running a contest to giveaway an iPad after the Pulse General Session on Tuesday. They would like Pulse attendees to try out the Cloud demo. However, you don't even have to take part in the demo to be eligible. Just bring a business card and drop it in their box near the demo. Here are the deets:

Play a part in the demo "Witness Cloud and Integrated Service Management IN ACTION." Then answer a few simple questions and you could walk away with an iPad!!!

If you are interested in Cloud, you also might add Session #2084 "Integrated Service Management Cloud Simulator Overview" to your agenda. Use the PulseSmartSite to add #2084 to your agenda.

Terms and Conditions

No purchase necessary

Drop your business card off at the Main Tent area if you don't wish to participate in the demo and still be eligible to win

Offer not available to government employees, employees of IBM and its affiliates, and their families, and other ineligible under applicable law.

Offer void where prohibited. IBM reserves the right to withdraw this offer at any time.

Federal, state, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the recipient.

By the way, like my new digs? I think I'm gonna like it here, so here's a big ole SHOUT OUT to my good friend Tiffany Winman for her work with Alison Olssen on building my shiny new bloggy home :)

Hmm…what could be better than being at IBM Pulse 2011?Being an IBM customer at Pulse, that’s what!

Want to know why it’s smart to be an IBM customer? Well keep
reading and you’ll discover just a few of the ways IBM is saying THANK YOU to
our immensely valued, extraordinary customers at Pulse 2011.

Pulse VIP Speaker lounge:If you are one of the hundreds of speakers at the event make sure to visit the Speaker Lounge dedicated to our VIPs. After all of the walking you will have done, I
bet you would be interested in plopping down in one of our comfy chairs
dedicated for back and foot massages.All
IBM client speakers are entitled to be pampered by our massage chairs in the
Speaker lounge along with other complimentary amenities. While you’re there, indulge
in some refreshments or just kick back and use your laptop. Trust me, it will
be nice to relax and revitalize from the busy Vegas nightlife and morning sessions
so make sure you take advantage of this opportunity.The VIP Speaker Lounge is in the Conference
center, level 3, room 308 and is open from 10am –6pm, Monday – Wednesday.

Client Hospitality Lounge in the Pulse Expo: Two
words: MARTINI BAR! Save your red tickets for another night (hint: red tickets
are redeemable for beer and wine).Sunday night our IBM client references are welcome to hang out in the
Client Hospitality Lounge and sip on a martini or two, so don’t cash in those
precious red tickets and come...uh…”network” in the lounge.

If martinis are not your thing then we have something even cooler
for you on Monday afternoon, come in the lounge and treat yourself to some ice
cream bars and sodas …no excuses people, you will walk off all of the calories
anyway.
The lounge will also be stocked up with refreshments Tuesday so there will
surely be something to get your taste buds excited.

If you are an IBM customer who
isn’t a reference yet don’t fret, come fill out a quick form in the lounge and
you will be all set to partake in the goodies. Not only will you be eligible for
the martinis and ice cream, you will also get a cash voucher to spend in the
IBM logo store, just for answering a few questions.The Client Hospitality Lounge is open during
ALL Pulse Expo hours, so I hope to see you there!

`

IBM Client Connections: Ever wonder how other companies
are using IBM offerings to achieve incredible business results?Why not ask one in person? Take advantage of
the IBM Client Connections program by selecting a solution that interests you
and then picking from a list of our lighthouse clients. An IBMer will arrange a
30 minute session for you and that client during the Pulse Conference and you
can brainstorm, get advice and problem solve, or just hangout and network.

Videos/Case Studies/Press:Get your company’s success story out to
the public on IBM’s dollar.Show others
how your company is innovative or smarter using IBM solutions by signing up to
participate in a video filmed at Pulse, a case study or even by talking to
press or analyst.Videos will be
promoted on YouTube, iTunes, IBM sites, Twitter, and many other outlets giving
you free publicity without any effort on your part, and what can be better than
that? Oh yeah, all of that plus a complimentary cash voucher to be used in the
logo store.

A Tivoli
Case Study writer will be on site to interview you in person, saving you the time
and frustration of having to do it after the event. Case studies are yet another excellent way for
you to get your IBM Tivoli success story to the public, as well as another easy
way for you to get more cash for the IBM logo store!

Don’t have
time to meet for an interview?If you
are a speaker at Pulse you have the option of letting us use your recorded
session to create your case study, and you will still get the cash for the logo
store, it has never been so easy.Once
our writer has drafted your case study you will have the chance to review and
approve before it is published.

With
all of the press and analysts that are attending Pulse there are many
opportunities to speak to someone and if you’re interested we can make sure you
are contacted directly for the opportunity.

Don’t be shy, be proud to be an IBM customer and reap the
benefits of your VIP status!

Want more information on how to participate in any of these
activities? Add a comment below with your question and we’ll hook you up with
some info.

You are cordially invited to participate in the IBM Service Management Simulator Workshop (Cloud version) at Pulse on Sunday, February 27th from 12-3pm. The workshop is a hands-on simulation game which focuses on the challenges and business value of implementing Service Management best practices in the context of a realistic and exhilarating scenario. During the workshop, you'll use gaming dynamics to mirror the real-world interaction between IT and the business, from both a strategic and operational perspective. By attending the workshop, you will achieve an accelerated and breakthrough understanding of ITSM and ITIL best practices, a reinforcement of key concepts and information you can take back to your company to assess how ITIL best practices can contribute to your organization, and a better understanding of how the effectiveness of IT processes impacts the business.

Business Partners are invited to join IBM in Las Vegas, Nevada February 27 - March 2, 2011, for Pulse 2011. There are activities throughout the event that are geared to help Business Partners "Be Bold. Be Tivoli." in 2011.

Introducing Dean Kamen, who will deliver the Guest Keynote at Pulse 2011, "The Future Belongs to Inventors"

As an inventor and physicist, Dean Kamen has dedicated his life to developing technologies that help people lead better lives. As an inventor, he holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. The array of products and technologies invented and developed by Mr. Kamen and the engineering team at DEKA is extremely broad. Two notable breakthrough medical devices invented and developed by DEKA are the HomeChoice™ portable dialysis machine, marketed by Baxter Healthcare, and the iBOT™ Mobility System, a sophisticated mobility aid developed for Johnson & Johnson. With the Segway™ Human Transporter, Mr. Kamen aspired to improve upon the most basic form of transportation, walking, by allowing people to go farther, move more quickly, and carry more without separating them from their everyday walking environment.

Among Mr. Kamen’s proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use and enjoy science and technology. In 2009, its flagship program, the FIRST Robotics Competition, will reach more than 42,000 high-school students on close to 1,700 teams in 40 regional competitions, seven district competitions, and one national championship. The FIRST Robotics Competition teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way.

While 2010 is coming to a close, extensive planning is in the works for Pulse 2011 to ensure it is a unparalleled experience for our Business Partners. The Business Partner Summit, Business Partner Cafe, Solution Expo, networking opportunities, and one-on-one meetings will all focus on helping Business Partners refine their strategy to design and deliver outstanding business services to their customers.

The exclusive Business Partner Summit will be held in conjunction with Pulse on Sunday, February 27. 92% of Business Partners surveyed at the 2010 Summit said it was a valuable use of their time. This year's Summit will include executive insights to Tivoli’s strategy and direction, along with many sessions designed to help you maximize performance and solidify how you and IBM can go to market together to drive business results. You will hear from industry, solution, sales, and marketing experts who will provide critical business information to help you identify where you can grow your business in 2011. Then the session-packed Pulse conference will provide the foundation of product and solution knowledge to jump-start that growth!

View this video from Sandy Carter, vice president, IBM Software Business Partners and Midmarket, as she extends a personal invitation to Pulse 2011 and the Business Partner Summit on Sunday, February 27. Then register to join us at Pulse!

It's been said that central Texas only has two seasons: summer and football season. If you’ve spent any time in a Texas summer, you might understand our zeal for the latter. Contrary to some folklore, Texans like a lot of other stuff about autumn. Here are a few more seasonal treats that inspire this Texan to put out the welcome mat for autumn, even as summer huffs the last of it’s dragon breath well into November.

Not catching on fire just stepping outdoors!

Football! (Mack Brown could help make this a little more inspiring.)

Road race season!

Halloween candy!

Pulse planning season! (I have a fun job!)

Turkey and dressing!

Daylight Savings Time!

Let’s pause for a moment because Daylight Savings Time alone can bring tears of joy to my eyes. Allow me to elaborate.

For starters, the sun comes up earlier. This is huge for runners. It’s harder for coyotes and mountain lions to stalk us after daybreak. An earlier dusk means I am alert enough to not only notice, but also enjoy our famous sunsets. And – best of all: the aliens that live with me my children are tricked into an earlier reboot
bedtime.

Ok, so what does all this have to do with Pulse? Nothing! But while I am celebrating being tricked into feeling like autumn gives me more time, let’s celebrate a real treat of extra time for you:

Pulse 2011 call for speakers has been extended to November 23, 2010. I promise that’s no trick, unless you were planning to submit a paper to the Enterprise Asset Management track. In that case, your extension treat expires on November 16.

Need Help Getting Started?

No problem! Here are a few suggestions to help you get started on the path to joining our agenda as a featured expert.

Hi Carol, go to www.ibm.com/PULSE and click on the link for "Submit
a Presentation." Browse through the more recent blog entries and
you can find one for How to prepare using the online paper
submission tool. Thanks and see you at Pulse!

After completing your speaker profile, click "Fill out a session proposal." AGAIN, you do NOT need to be ready to submit a proposal to browse the contents of the submission tool, which includes the description and listing of the streams and a list of the tracks.

When you click "Fill out a session proposal" you can view the descriptions of the streams.

Like I mentioned before, this curriculum is quite robust or I would list it out in this blog entry. It will, however, be listed on the Pulse website at ibm.com/pulse soon.

In the mean time, click "Create a session for . . . " for descriptions of the stream's tracks and sub-tracks. When you are ready, fill out the Call for Speakers questionnaire and submit your proposal within the stream section with which the content of your proposal aligns most closely. But don't delay! The Call for Speakers closes on November 9, 2010.

If you have any questions, see your IBM representative, or post your question here and we'll provide the assistance you need.

How much do you think the man who discovered Michigan J. Frog would have made if only he would sing for anyone else? Millions? Billions?

.

.

Perhaps we'll never know, but here is something we do know: there is an estimated $230 TRILLION dollars of capital assets deployed around the world that businesses depend on for real results. These devices are instrumented, interconnected and unlike Michigan J. Frog, talking to everyone all the time. But we’re not listening.

Why? Because most of them were designed with different technologies and speak different languages, and mostly we hear a bunch of noise. *croooooooaak*

To enable the interconnected infrastructures to communicate with each other so we can make sense out of what they are saying, we need to harness the power of software that can connect any type of device to any network.

When we do, then we can deliver the intelligence we expect from a smarter planet.
Check out the following video for an automobile industry scenario.

In a couple of weeks, on 9/22, we will open Pulse 2011 Call for Speakers. Many of you have already been thinking about this for a while. We hope you consider sharing your expertise in connecting the system of systems with software that is smart AND secure by design. Here's how you can prepare and submit your papers after 9/22.

Hey guys, this was meant for the Integrated Service Management
blog, but if you are considering presenting at Pulse, this would be
an excellent topic that is getting a lot of attention lately. And
for good reason: there has been a 36 % rise in vulnerability
disclosures for the first half of 2010.

When I saw Tom Cross give a talk at Innovate 2010 in June, I was first struck with the nonchalance with which he spoke of the black market business of Internet data. I could not have been more intrigued if I were watching a movie adapted from a John Grisham novel. He seemed to have some emotional distance from what creeps most of us out about our mail. And I’m not even talking about email. I mean the good old-fashioned USPS mail. I KNOW I am not the only one who has worn out a few paper shredders thanks to Citibank, Chase, and the like.

The second thing that hijacked my thought train for more than a few moments was how network vulnerabilities are created for the explicit purpose of learning cyber criminal behavior. Like signing up for as much spam as you can. Sure it makes sense to me now. But I am still vaguely uncomfortable talking publicly about threat and attacks. It seems akin to Batman and the Joker building websites to promote their plans to outsmart each the other. What was I not getting? By now I was considering slipping quietly out of the room to silence the voice in my head saying I had been foolish, very, very foolish in my confidence as a clever and vigilant consumer of Internet Things.

Realizing that I had some mental catching up to do, I stayed for the lasting impression that could keep me awake at night: just how easy it is to steal digital data. As I struggled with the impartial irony of how enormous yet simple a cat and mouse game Web App security is, visions of Tom and Jerry danced in my boggled brain.

Enlighten Us: How Are Your Bright Ideas Helping to Build a Smarter Planet?

Pulse will return to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas February 27 through March 2, 2011 to bring over 6000 attendees the best practices, solutions and expertise needed to help organizations design, deliver and manage new, innovative business services - smarter services that drive unique client value and competitive advantage.

Over 300 client presentations will demonstrate how Integrated Service Management helped organizations gain an end-to-end view of business services across boundaries to effectively manage risk and compliance, change the economics of delivering service and achieve common business objectives. We invite you to submit your proposal to present at Pulse 2011!

CLIENT SPEAKER BENEFITS

Pulse 2011 client speakers will receive complimentary registration to the conference, and the first 50 to submit a proposal will receive a FREE hotel accommodations upgrade* to a Celebrity Spa Suite at the MGM Grand if the proposal is accepted!
*The speaker pays for the basic room and will be awarded the upgrade if they submit one of the first 50 papers to be accepted.

Client Speaker Benefits include:

One full conference pass ($1995 value)

Use of our exclusive Client Speaker VIP Lounge

Networking opportunities with over 6000 industry experts, press, and analysts

Eligibility for the Maximo Best Practices Award (EAM papers only).

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Proposals will include a 100-word abstract that outlines a unique organizational experience based on, but not limited to, one of the following scenarios:

Service architectures tailored by industry that address unique service delivery challenges including security, storage and compliance requirements.
·

Service life-cycle management that bridge workflow across line of business, enterprise architecture, software development and testing, IT operations (data center, security, storage, and network operations), and business operations (production and facilities) to ensure successful “go-live” and continual improvement of applications and services.

Service dashboards that enable audiences from executives and business operations to IT managers to see the service and gain insight into service health, integrity (security and storage), and business activity.

Unified management of service requests and problems spanning business and IT that enable work orders to be automatically routed to the right support staff.

Asset management that supports both enterprise and IT assets across all asset classes with a single process model and a single data model.

TWO
Full days of an agenda exploring Integrated Service Management solutions for every industry across business and IT that address the full service lifecycle, both within and beyond the datacenter. Discover how to transform traditional IT, physical, and emerging smart assets into unique business value.

A few days ago, I asked for some feedback on PCTY in India this week. I came across the following bits from PCTY in India that caught my attention and I thought, "Why not share them with my little monsters blog readers?" (Sorry - too much Lady Gaga on the running trial this week.)

These are all re-Tweets from the Tivoli team in India reporting live this week. If you want to read more about the action from PCTY India, visit http://www.tivoliindia.com and http://ow.ly/29l9X for the entire event wrap up.

Latest Analyst Insights

Industrial Expertise and Technology presented at PCTY in India

Guest speaker, Chetan Bhagat

.I would love to comment on what I think about all this stuff, but I would really like to hear what others think, especially about Mr. Bhagat's idea on studying Humanties, most of the future growth in IT coming out of emerging markets, and business priorities returning to pre-recession status. Comment here or out in the Twitter space with the hashtag #ibmpulse or #tivoliindia.

If you ever read this blog before, you already know that many of the guest celebrity speakers that have joined the Pulse or PCTY agenda have written at least one book. While the subject matter of the books by our guest speakers are mainly biographical with commentary on business, culture, and politics, none of our past speakers have been primarily fiction writers. This makes a lot of sense because we don’t do fiction at Pulse. On the contrary, we make great effort to demonstrate the reality of how Integrated Service Management is helping to build a smarter planet today.

Our colleagues in India are getting innovative with the recipe this week at PCTY in Delhi and Mumbai and are hosting guest speaker Chetan Bhagat, the best selling English language novelist in India’s history.

As a big fan of the first amendment to the US Constitution and the innate desire for humans to communicate thoughts, given the choice between resting idle or reading what is handed to me, I’ll read anything from a toddler’s board book to an electronics catalogue. However, like a moth to the flame, the fiction junkie in me is drawn to made-up stories of all genres. Naturally I am intrigued by the choice in celebrity guest speaker at PCTY India.

If you are lucky enough to attend PCTY in Delhi or Mumbai this week, give us your feedback on anything from the latest analyst insights, industrial expertise, technology and service offerings presented by the Tivoli team in India, and of course guest speaker, Chetan Bhagat, who plans to deliver a satirical speech about, “Riding out the Tough Times.”

I haven’t yet read anything by Mr. Bhagat, but I do know that I care not to ride out any tough time without the accompaniment of satire.

Jean-Pierre Garbani , Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester will start the event presenting Smart Infrastructure Require IT Management 2.0
The transformation of IT into a service provider and on to a business partner is happening! Within this transformation, technology is only one element of the equation. To be successful IT needs to re-evaluate how they are organized, how they provide quality of services and how they manage these services all in coordination with each other. The drive to industrialize IT is demanding a new paradigm of IT Management.

Keynote speaker for the event will be Steven Sorce, Vice President Tivoli Sales, Northeast Europe.

3 reasons not to miss the event:
http://www-05.ibm.com/de/events/pcty2010/agenda.html

The top reason: In his opening speech Al Zollar, the internationally renowned and experienced General Manager of IBM Tivoli Software, will be presenting the next steps towards Integrated Service Management for successful enterprises. Find out more about how you can integrate resources and processes to create new innovative business services – for a digitized, interconnected and smarter world.

The second reason: In many client presentations, well-known businesses will be sharing their experience with IBM Service Management solutions and providing valuable insight into applications in practice. For the first time ever, you can look forward to a special series of presentations with a technical focus on the afternoon of the conference.

The third reason: In addition, you can seize this unique opportunity to talk to the international speakers and IBM experts and discuss the latest topics, trends and developments with your colleagues in other business enterprises.

Integrated Service Management is helping businesses prepare for changes that are impacting the organization. Smart SOA makes business processes easy to change, but those changes put demands on the infrastructure. Because a Dynamic Infrastructure is adaptive, it can support those business processes. Integrated Service Management anticipates how business processes shift their pressures on the infrastructure, enabling the infrastructure to adapt quickly, and making the changing world a smarter world. And that is why Integrated Service Management willbe in attendance at Impact 2010, May 2 - 7, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

One of the Integrated Service Management highlights includes a Day 3 keynote from IBM Fellow, David Lindquist, Cloud Computing Models Including Components from Shared Middleware & ISM.

What is Integrated Service Management?

Don't forget, you can request 1:1 meetings with IBM executives and technical experts.

At Pulse 2010, we announced Integrated Service Management, and a new Smarter Planet Theme: Product and Service Innovation, which provides organizations with an integrated means to design, deliver and manage business and IT services. In June, we're continuing the drum beat with Innovate 2010, a revamped and upgraded software and services conference, featuring hundreds of hands-on technical workshops and skill-building sessions. Innovate 2010 will feature an entire track – 16 sessions - devoted to Integrated Service Management.

Come to Innovate 2010 to see Integrated Service Management solutions that:

define an effective service strategy to gain unique competitive advantage

develop tools and processes across architecture, development, and operations for faster time to market

assure the health and performance of composite applications with faster problem identification and resolution

leverage new delivery options like virtualization, cloud computing and many more.

improve visibility into business activity and health indicators for smarter products and services to ensure continual service improvement

Vice-President Al Gore discussed how business leaders can step up to the challenge of helping to make the world a better place with energy efficiency and climate change. Gore's humor was a big hit with the audience.

IBM Tivoli 2010 Business Partner awards were also announced as follows:

Pirean wins IBM Tivoli 2010 Business Partner Service Management Solution Award for outstanding business partner solution delivering the visibility, control and automation required to industrialize business and IT operations.Founded in 2002, Pirean is a leading systems integrator and consultancy delivering real-time business and service assurance through solutions for infrastructure and application management. Pirean worked with a major UK Government Agency to address significant Service Management challenges. The customer had no accurate view of the IT estate, limited KPI reporting and time consuming SLA management. Through a detailed process of discovery of the existing environment, Pirean was able to review and document process in line with ITIL best practice (ISO20000) – and by leveraging the integrated IBM portfolio, design a solution from a technology perspective to ensure that process was followed. The solution includes customer specific customizations to each Screen within Tivoli Service Request Manager and CCMDB, as well as implementing workflows that guide the user through the defined service management process. The solution delivered has already demonstrated the ability to introduce increased structure and control through workflows, and dramatically improved configuration management through the discovery tools and provides a level of compliance management previously not available.

Finalists included: B4Restore, ReachView Technologies

Softential, Inc. wins IBM Tivoli 2010 Business Partner Innovation Award for leading the charge to manage the world’s infrastructure with IBM Tivoli capabilities and solutions in innovative, intelligent, and exciting ways. Founded in 2000, Softential provides Service Management solutions for businesses that need to monitor and manage their services, IT infrastructure and workflow. Softential's product OpsAssure is a new enhanced integration and visualization of relevant CMDB data (asset and GIS information) and Google Maps; and dynamic weather information (from N.O.A.A); essentially forging new capabilities as called for in IBM’s Smart Planet initiative. OpsAssure provides integrations with IBM Tivoli Business Automation products (Netcool OMNIbus, Netcool Webtop and Netcool Impact). Working with client Cox Communications, Softential used their OpsAssure solution to help Cox better obtain fault and event information to Cox across service areas in the context of real-time weather data (obtained periodically from NOAA) and its affect on Cox’s service availability and QOS. Cox benefits from having this unprecedented visibility into its service areas both in normal operating conditions as well as when faced with adverse weather. As a result, Cox is able to reduce outage durations and ensure customer satisfaction.FINALISTS: generationE, the Createch Group

eSolutions wins the Smarter Planet Award for its dedicated work with clients to manage instrumented, interconnected and intelligent infrastructures with better visibility control and automation.

Alcatel Lucent wins the Network Equipment Provider Award for its contribution to Tivoli’s success in 2009.

StorServer wins the Application Specific License Award for its contribution to Tivoli’s success in 2009. Winner:

Pulse 2010 Best of Show Award for showcasing a solution at the Pulse conference that solves problems in today’s IT market by using creative methods, drives new markets, and fosters new innovation and cutting edge solutions. TBD until Monday

The CIO Summit, International Forum Reception, Maximo User Groups sessions, and the opening of the Pulse Solution Expo were also part of today's big events. The first day of general sessions starts tomorrow.

Melissa, welcome back, and happy new year! Thanks for the color
commentary on what folks can expect around System z at Pulse. I'm
especially looking forward to Barb's presentation on the value of
social networking.

So. We picked a guest speaker for Pulse, one of IBM’s flagship conferences. And this time it’s not a sports hero. This time we picked someone more renowned for his serious passion to save the world. For real. Our dude is busting his rump to save us from the fire and brimstone we’ll be swimming in when all the glaciers melt. And since we here at IBM have been talking the talk of building a smarter planet, I’m thinking our choice makes a lot of sense. Because the world wouldn’t be so smart if we all got dead. There’d be all these data centers floating about aimlessly. Just saying.

Ladies and Gentleman of the blogosphere, please put your fingertips on your keyboard and prepare to tell the rest of the interwebs that we are honored to host:

United States Army Veteran,

Best Selling Author,

Grammy Award Winner,

Academy Award Winner,

Nobel Laureate,

and 45th Vice President of the United States,

Al Gore, Cooler Planet Crusader in Chief.

But if says he’s building an arc, I’m still not buying stock in the big box home improvement center that’s breeding grackles in its 40 acre parking lot. They’re chasing away all the song birds. I’m just saying.

It has been gorgeous Friday here in sunny Austin, Texas at a nice 65-70 degrees. It’s only fair to give props when props are due, especially since I have used this blog to gritch about the oppressive heat last summer, which ended yesterday I think.

So! Onto the real reason I brought you here:

Did you know that you peeps only have like two weeks left to get your proposals in to present at Pulse? I know you all have an IBM story to tell. Maybe you don’t think anyone would want to hear it or maybe you are concerned that you don’t have time to prepare. Or maybe you just don’t think that there is good reason to bother.

Nonsense, I say to thee!

First of all, this offer isn’t just for high-ranking executives or big business partners. We also need the folks who actually hands-on run the stuff we sell your company. Does it work? Did it get you out of a fix? Did it prevent you from being in a fix? Did it save more money than it cost? That sort of thing.

And thirdly, do you realize what an opportunity this is? You will be immortalized!

Seriously, we promote the heck out of the good stuff people say at Pulse. Why on earth wouldn’t we? We might even interview you on camera (if you let us) and put you on our YouTube channel and Tweet, Facebook, and of course blog about you. Client presentations from Pulse are wildly popular. My colleagues ping me weekly with, “I need So-and-So’s presentation from Pulse 2009 for a meeting with [client, executive, press, you fill in the blank]!” We’ll make you famous (sort of).

Here are some more goodies for our speakies:

One full conference pass ($1995 value).*

Use of our exclusive Client Speaker VIP Lounge.

Networking opportunities with over 5000 industry experts, press and analysts.

A profile of your success story in the Pulse agenda/curriculum guide.

EAM papers are eligible for the Maximo best practices award.

What are you waiting for? The deadline is November 2 and the clock is ticking!

The last two years of Pulse have provided awesome opportunities for networking and the latest education around service management, security, storage, asset management, automation, network operations, Cloud Computing, Energy Management, and much more.

But come on! The real question on everyone's mind is: Who will be the special guests at Pulse??? How can IBM top past guests such as Lance Armstrong, Magic Johnson, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Smashmouth?

Stay tuned to learn more. In the meanwhile, check out the good times at Pulse with these links:

With summer vacation coming to close, the kids are heading back to school, and once again it’s time to prepare for the harvest. For some, it’s a bittersweet time as kids venture out into the wildernesses of kindergarten through college. For others, it’s a welcome return to a routine of days begun without Finneas and Ferb, followed by the freedom to indulge in an intense focus on work without the whiny pitches of, “Maaahhhhmmeeeeeeeee! I need a snnnaaa-aaack” at regular intervals.

I hope you all had a good summer. Maybe you took a vacation. Me? If you’d been reading my blogs you won’t be surprised to hear that Central Texas destroyed every one of its existing heat records dating back to 1854, and along with it, my desire for my annual beach trip.

Heat exhaustion can do strange things to a person. Some see things like a mirage in a desert. Others might hear ringing in their ears. When I saw my vehicle’s thermostat register 130 F in my driveway, I listened for fire truck sirens.

Instead I heard the call of the wild, which emphatically told me to head north and keep going until I reached a glacier or something. Call of the wild? More like call of the brilliant ideas!

I was really glad I answered that call. It led me to a cabin in the North Woods of Minnesota on Lake Superior. Ok, it’s not a glacier but it used to be. After chilling for a while (under wool blankets!), I returned home recharged and ready for the harvest. For Pulse, our harvest goals include recruiting 300 Service Management experts to speak at Pulse 2010 by October 16.

This week marks a milestone for the Pulse team as we kick off our plans for the 2010 conference this week. With my enthusiasm and curiosity to see what we come up with to maintain our creds as the Premier Service Management event at an all time high, I did what I do every day. I logged into Facebook.

Not that I thought that people would be posting, “Hey Pulse! We want more Cloud Computing sessions in 2010” or “Hey IBM! Bring back Magic Johnson!” I go to Facebook every day because it is a full-blown addiction of mine. If everyone I know wasn’t also addicted, I might have already begged for an intervention in a previous status update. Evidently, this predisposition for social media addiction is not unique to me and my “friends.” Look what I found on the IBM Pulse wall (names and faces concealed to protect the innocent):

Sounds like a cry for help and, judging by the digital face that follows her confession, she is truly concerned. That is, until she discovers she is not alone in this situation.

But I digress. Why didn’t I think I would be blown over with requests and suggestions for Pulse via our online community? Because in the two years since we launched the Pulse online community, I have been asking for suggestions and feedback on the event on all our social media channels and have gotten just about zero response to such open ended questions like, “What can we improve?” Or “Who would you like to see as guest speaker?” It seems what motivates people to share thoughts in an online community is just as unique as the spots on a leopard. But just as every leopard has spots, every social networker has something to say. When you add up all the comments, they represent what is common throughout the community.

Hence, this social media voyeur has learned that there is great value to be gleaned from lurking around Facebook and Twitter (LinkdIn too, no doubt) while planning an event for 5000 people.

Before I hedge my bets on what the Pulse 2010 agenda may or may not feature, let me share four common themes represented on the Pulse Facebook wall today.

1. More people are Tweeting and Facebooking more than ever from various mobile devices.If “I want my MTV” was the social slogan of the 80s, “I want my Web 2.0” should be the slogan of our decade. I remember watching MTV for hours to catch a glimpse of Michael Jackson's "Beat It." Today, we can watch anything, anytime on YouTube, and more of us are using phones, laptops, whatever. The evidence? More and more of the mobile icon next to status updates:

2. More people are retweeting and linking Twitter with their Facebook and YouTube accounts.I actually felt bad for United Airlines when I saw a retweet of a not too favorable blog, "If you won't listen, someone will." A disgruntled passenger’s complaints about a damaged guitar were ignored. The ignored passenger recorded and posted a video about his experience to YouTube on July 6, 2009. This video already has nearly 3 million views in just a little over a week. Ouch. Maybe United Airlines should send someone to Pulse 2010. We can help with that.

3. Sadly, there are still daily wall posts that reflect the state of the economy.While some are sharing their pink slip news, others are chronicling job hunts. The one that that tugged my heartstrings was the Facebooker who reported discontinuing Blackberry mobile data services to make necessary cutbacks. *sniff*

4. It’s hot out there. I don’t need Facebook to feel the heat, but there are plenty of posts on my wall about the heat wave, global warming, the rising cost of energy, and the looming cap and trade laws.

If I were a betting person, I would put money on chances of a continued conversation about the exponential growth of data and digital devices and how to manage them responsibly on the new smarter planet, also characterized by an ailing global economy and changing climate.

It’s a big day for Seamus. There has been a very important addition to his family today.

No, not the McManus family. The Cloud Family.

What’s that? No, Cloud is not the maiden surname of Mrs. Seamus McManus. Allow me to clarify: I’m talking about Cloud Computing. Yes, that’s right. Our Seamus is the father of Cloud Computing. I know the Pulse fans know all about it from the session "Aligning IT to Business - Competitive Advantage of Cloud Computing" that was featured at Pulse 2009 and Pulse Comes to You local events.

I have been thinking of Seamus a lot lately in anticipation of the arrival of this new addition christened, IBM CloudBurst. I really wanted to congratulate him, you know, pay my respects. And invite him to the webcast scheduled in honor of the arrival next Thursday. It’s going to be a big hit. BTW – you’re all invited, too.

So I did what anyone would do when looking for someone.

I looked Seamus up on Facebook.

To my dismay, my search netted eleven, yes - eleven Seamus McManuses. Who knew the name Seamus McManus was all that common? I only know of one.

I also know this: If Seamus were a female, I would have found her on the first try. I know this for a fact because me and most of my lady friends of the hitched marital status include our maiden names on our Facebook profiles so long lost buddies can find us. It works. My BFF from 1st grade that I haven’t spoke to in about 20 years recently found me. No, she didn’t write LYLAS on my wall . . . yet.

Alas, most of the Seamus’s on Facebook have the cartoon instead of a personalized picture, so I still haven’t been able to connect with our hero. Can you imagine if my well-intended sentiments on the bouncing baby . . . . nebula? . . . (I don’t even know) went to the wrong guy? Embarrassing.

Cartman's Adventures at Rational Software ConferenceIn this cartoon short, Cartman leads the South Park gang down to the Rational Software Conference in the Sunshine State to - well - pick a fight with some techni-brains over the virtues of incrementally adopting model-driven software development and then skinny-dip in the famous fish fountain in the Walt Disney World Swan Hotel . . .Click here to read the rest of the blog.

It's been three years since the first IBM Tivoli conference arrived in Australia. This year, the annual gathering of Tivoli professionals is changing its name to Pulse ANZ to ring in a new era: one that will showcase more than just Tivoli, but everything Service Management. This means new content, new insights and a completely new look and feel.

Whether you're new to the Tivoli family or a Tivoli Technical User Conference alumni, this is a must-attend event that helps you increase your technical skills and knowledge on the latest products, technologies, best practices and solutions.

Thanks to the Pulse Japan team and attendees for making Pulse Japan on April 15 at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka such a wonderful success! Over 1200 IT Managers, System Administrators, CIOs, LOBs, Facilities Managers, and IBM Business Partners, and IBM employees attended the event to participate in the following activities:

Keynote: Outclass Your Business with "Dynamic Infrastructure"

by Kazuo Iwano, COO, Future Value Creation Team, IBM Japan, Ltd.

Keynote: Service Management for Surviving Against Severe Business Environment - Approach for "Cost Reduction" and "Enhancement of Competitiveness"

Attending the Pulse 2009 conference in Vegas was one of the highlights of my year. How could I ever top all the great people, topics, demos, products, solutions, services, innovations, fun, and excitement at Pulse? Honestly, I don't think it's possible. You just had to be there! However, if you'd like to get a taste of the experience or extend your own Pulse experience, I recommend some of the links below:

-Use #ibmpulse in Twitter search to see tweets of others. -Use this Twitter feed to syndicate alerts to iGoogle or MyYahoo. -Send a direct message to @ibmpulse if you want to catch my attention or ask me to syndicate something out to the larger Pulse community.

Pulse on Facebook: Get Pulse alerts, post to the Pulse wall, see who else is coming to Pulse, and network with the Facebook community.

Pulse on YouTube: View and comment on live stories with Pulse attendees. Share your own videos by friending Pulse.

I was seriously bummed this morning when Al Zollar announced that Michael Phelps would not be speaking at the Pulse conference. Al explained that another exciting keynote speaker was on the agenda for later, but wouldn’t tell us who it was. The Twitter crowd immediately started speculating who it would be--Chris Rock?

And a series of Pulse speakers proceeded to joke about the possibility of Al speaking in a Speedo as a Phelps replacement. With the anticipation building, it was hard to focus when Jim Logsdon, from Alcatel-Lucent (Diamond sponsor of Pulse), spoke about his long-term partnership with IBM.

Chris O’Connor’s discussion on why being Green is important was fascinating. He highlighted four key reasons to focus on energy and efficiency: money, risk, compliance, responsibility. He basically argued that we need to reduce wasting energy in the data center and use the cost savings to invest in better tools to save money, comply with regulations, avoid severe punishment, and act responsibly as world citizens. He definitely caught our attention—and it wasn’t just due to the totally cool green tie he was wearing. Chris used some simple math to show that we could save $750/year just on better managing two servers and $750K/year if we were dealing with a 1000 servers. The Twitter crowd really enjoyed his presentation.

Finally, the moment had arrived. We were all awaiting with excitement to hear who the new Pulse keynote speaker was for that morning. The crowd showed their excitement when Al announced it was Magic Johnson!

Magic Johnson came off as a darling to the crowd. He was very intelligent and personable—walking amongst the Pulse attendees, asking them to stand up, giving them long hugs, speaking and engaging with them directly, and encouraging personal photo opportunities. And his talk was both humorous and informative. Demonstrating a strong business acumen and industriousness, he spoke of his foundation and the unique perspective he brought to incorporating ethnic and urban consumer tastes to coffee shops, movie theatres, fitness centers, and real estate projects. He also encouraged the audience to stay positive and embrace a winning spirit in the face of current economic challenges. He was met with a standing ovation! Once again, the Twitter crowd went wild!

Just got out of Day 1 of Pulse General Session Kickoff. I was unable to get a stable connection in the Theatre, so I’ve had problems in uploading media to the two channels below, but keep checking since I should have cool stuff I’ll be discussing throughout the conference uploaded soon:

Laura Sanders and Alan Ganek, in comedy style mode, discussed demos of how Tivoli products help with Dynamic Infrastructure. I got a kick out of their Sunny and Cher-like comedy. They started off with a Pizza video that they wove through the whole demo discussion. Alan quipped, “There has to be some way to bring intelligence to your door, Laura.” Laura slammed him back on the petitions she received requesting that he not sing on stage. And several hecklers from the audience threw in “and dancing!”

Jim Haney, Harley Davidson CEO, spoke on how important Tivoli products are for delivering a superior experience.

Tom Rosamillia, General Manager of IBM WebSphere Software, spoke on how SOA and Service Management together help deliver the Dynamic Infrastructure vision and invite folks to learn more at the upcoming IMPACT conference in May.

John Brandt, from the MPI Group, spoke about how Convergence is a great opportunity moving forward. As a community strategist, a key point he kept reinforcing that resonated with me was that Customers are rarely buying a brand. For instance, they are not buying beer, but relationships and community. Yup!

He says we all should be asking three main questions: What do your customers really want? Can employees deliver real innovation? Do your processes drive consistent measurable progress?

Repeated theme throughout the entire morning was: Who will lead the charge for a Smarter Planet and Dynamic Infrastructure: You! You! You! Rich Esposito, VP of IBM IT Strategy and Architecture Services, specifically called out CIOs, stating they are in a bittersweet spot--being challenged to align with both the demands of the business and the world. He said they are in the best position to lead the journey and transform the waters. The good news is that being a good citizen strategically also helps in lowering total costs in managing IT and business infrastructure in the long run!

Tocontinue on my last blog entry…I also got a behind the scenes look at how the conference was coming together in the Expo and general session areas.

Based on the site map below, you will notice that there are three main areas that Pulse attendees will spend much of their time during the conference.

In the Pulse registration and breakout areas (ConferenceCenter)

In the Pulse Solution Expo (Marquee Ballroom)

In the Pulse general sessions and Pulse Palooza (Grand Garden Arena)

After a very long walk down a winding hallway, you will find the registration area in the MGMConferenceCenter. The Pulse Solution Expo is somewhat close, but requires you to step outside and walk to a nearby adjacent building.

The Pulse general sessions and Palooza area is a very different story since it is located in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which resides closer to the casino. If you can find witchcraft eatery, then you can find the Grand Garden Arena. See pictures below.

When I was checking out the Pulse online area where attendees can check announcements and messages and complete Pulse surveys, I discovered that AllianceTech has a daily drawing for an iPod Touch giveaway based on the completion of Pulse session surveys. Learn more by visiting the laptops against the wall across from the Pulse registration area.

I arrived in Vegas for the Pulse conference on Friday. I was able to register for the MGM at the airport right next to baggage claim and catch a round-trip shuttle for only $15. This saved me any lines when I actually arrived at the hotel. Sweet!

However, while following the tweets around Pulse, I noticed a pretty big difference in responses to hotel rooms depending on whether one was staying at MGM Grand or Signature.

While folks staying at the MGM Grand commonly report that the hotel rooms are adequate (even without the extra Signature features), but are missing coffee pots! Coffee in hotel rooms should be standard practice. One saving grace is that there are numerous Starbucks throughout MGM Grand.

So far I only have 2 personal complaints with my stay at the MGM Grand: The smoke in the casinos really hurts my eyes and throat, and my youthful gang of neighbors across the hall kept me up until 6 am with their loud, crazy antics! I just don’t like the competition. ;) Thank goodness they are checking out tomorrow.

1: the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions ; specifically : the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business2: the establishment or use of a computer network

I got this definition of networking from the Merriam Webster's website. It says networking is noun. Although I was an English major with pretty decent grades, this seems a bit illogical to me. I mean, networking implies that you actually have to do something like shake hands with a colleague, call a prospect on the phone, tag friends in a facebook picture, ask contacts to endorse you on LinkdIn, or send out a tweet via Twitter.

Whatever.

The point is, you can't do nothing and be networking. So just add the little word "am" in front of networking, as in, "I am networking at Pulse."

Et Voila!

You have a verb, and it's logical! See how easy it is? Here are a few great opportunities for networking at Pulse:

Pulse 2009 Networking Receptions Pulse is an unparalleled opportunity for networking with like-minded professionals. Attendees can meet new contacts or catch up with familiar faces at one of our networking receptions. You must be registered for Pulse 2009 to attend a Pulse networking reception. Here are a few already planned that you might want to attend:

Pulse attendees can meet others from their country or geographical region. Members of the Pulse Team will be on hand to welcome and provide guidance for navigating the conference to make it a productive and enjoyable experience. Attendees can also talk with representatives from the IBM organizations and discover IBM resources that can have a positive impact on your business. Sign up for the International Connection Reception by emailing Sheila Boyle with the subject ICR-YES to sboyle@us.ibm.com

IBM Service Management for Business LeadersConference Room 311Monday, February 9, 6:00 PM -7:30 PMAppetizers, beer and wineA convergence of key economic and technology trends compels today's business and IT leaders to place unprecedented focus on service management. Join Kristin Hansen for a continuation of these conversations from the IBM Service Management for Business Leaders session and more at a special Pulse reception. Catch up with established colleagues or develop new acquaintances. Attendees who attend sessions in the IBM Service Management for Business Leaders stream are invited to this reception.

System z ClientsTabu Ultra Lounge at the MGM Grand Monday February 9, 2009, 6:30 PMCocktails and hors d'oeuvres System z clients are invited to a special reception hosted by Dot Alexander and Karl Freund. Continue conversations from the sessions, catch up with familiar colleagues, or establish new acquaintances. Attendees are asked to present their conference badges for admission.

IBM Storage ClientsMGM Grand Conference Center Ballroom 309 Monday, February 9, 2009, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PMCocktails and hors d'oeuvres IBM Storage clients are invited to mingle and network with storage peers from around the world as well as IBM Storage executives. Don't miss this opportunity for quality discussions as well as some fun! Please confirm your attendance by January 30, 2009 with your IBM Sales Representative.

Super Women's GroupMGM Grand, Third Floor Convention FoyerTuesday, February 10, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PMCocktails and hors d'oeuvres Join host Laura Sanders, Vice President, Tivoli Development for the Super Women's Group Reception at Pulse 2009. Enjoy refreshments while you mix and mingle with other women in technology! RSVP by February 1, 2009 for the Super Women's Group Reception by adding it to your schedule with the Pulse Agenda Builder.

Last year at Pulse, our customers repeatedly told us their favorite thing about the conference was meeting the technical experts and gurus who build, use, and provide services for IBM products. If this is on the top of your "todo" list, check out the following opportunities to network and engage with some pretty cool technical people at Pulse.

Meet the Experts is an opportunity for IBM clients and Business Partners to engage in informal discussions with the technical leaders responsible for designing, coding, testing and supporting the broad portfolio of Tivoli software products. In this one-on-one format, Pulse attendees can gain additional information and clarification regarding messages delivered in the keynote and breakout sessions. Meet the Experts will take place in the Solution Expo in the Marquee Ballroom.

Sunday 06:30 p.m. – 08:30 p.m.

Monday 12:30 p.m. – 08:00 p.m.

Tuesday 12:30 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.

Wednesday 12:30 p.m. – 03:30 p.m.

Pulse Expo Theater

Expo theater presentations complement all the excitement and activity in the solution center. We've built a solid schedule of quick, 20-minute sessions from IBMers and IBM Business Partners to enhance your Pulse learning and education experience even further. Look for the topics and schedule in the Solution Expo Addendum.

Sunday 07:00 p.m. – 08:30 p.m.

Monday 01:00 p.m. – 08:00 p.m.

Tuesday 01:00 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.

Wednesday 01:00 p.m. – 03:30 p.m.

Hands-on Lab

Labs provide an excellent opportunity to get deep technical hands-on experience with Tivoli's service and asset management products. Choose from over 60 lab exercises in the area of Asset Management, Business Application Management, Service Management, Service Provider Solutions, Security Management, Server, Network and Device Management, and Storage Management. Take the self-paced lab exercises at your convenience when they fit into your agenda schedule. Lab proctors are available to assist you with the exercises and any technical questions. Five lab rooms with a total of 200 workstations are available for your convenience.

If you’re one of thousands of people flying into McCarran International Airport today for Pulse 2009, then you already know that we are about to explore building a smarter planet through a dynamic infrastructure with IBM Service Management. Are you ready? Good! The next thing on your agenda should be to visit The Top Six Pulse Social Networking Tools so you can decide how you want to keep in touch with friends, colleagues and clients during Pulse.

If you are not one of the lucky ones with this event already on your agenda, it’s not too late! Come by the MGM Grand and head over to the Pulse 2009 registration desk.

But, you ask, what is Pulse and why should you care? Good questions. We have the answers.

Pulse is a conference dedicated to building smarter IT infrastructure. You should care because smarter infrastructure is by far our best path to creating new, globally competitive jobs and stimulating growth. IBM research shows that focused investment in just three areas -- healthcare IT, smart electric grids and broadband -- could yield almost one million new jobs within one year.

“ Even as this plan puts Americans back to work, it will also make the critical investments in alternative energy, in safer roads, better health care and modern schools that will lay the foundation for long-term growth and prosperity, and will invest in broadband and emerging technologies, like the ones imagined and introduced to the world by people like Sam and so many of the CEOs here today, because that's how America will retain and regain its competitive edge in the 21st century."

-Use #ibmpulse in Twitter search to see tweets of others. -Use this Twitter feed to syndicate alerts to iGoogle or MyYahoo. -Send a direct message to @ibmpulse if you want to catch my attention or ask me to syndicate something out to the larger Pulse community.

àPulse on Facebook: For getting Pulse alerts, posting to the Pulse wall, seeing who else is coming to Pulse, and social networking with the Facebook community.

àPulse on YouTube: For viewing and commenting on live stories with Pulse attendees. Share your own videos by friending Pulse.

àPulse on Flickr: For sharing those exciting, great, and educational photo moments at Pulse.

Some other goodies

àPulse forum: We provide a number of Pulse discussion topics on the Pulse community on ibm.com.

However, due to some technical difficulties we’re having in our beta environment at the moment, we replicated these same questions on the Tivoli Group on LinkedIn in case you encounter any problems. Thanks for your patience as we work out the kinks. You can find these topics on LinkedIn:

If you’re going to be at the Pulse conference this year, stop by the Tivoli User Community Networking area at the end of aisle 100 in the Pulse Expo to learn more about using some of these new networking tools, record a live story at Pulse, or just chat. Hope to see you there!

Danyel: Tivoli User Community members get a discount of $600 off the full conference rate, for a purchase price of $1595 for members.

Also, the first 25 members to visit the User Community Networking Area get a special gift.

Q: What benefits do TUC members get by attending Pulse? Danyel: As user community members, we always like to hear our peers speak at meetings. While at Pulse, user community members can choose from 200 user/client breakout sessions -- 70% of all content is clients speaking.

Free Certification testing, labs and meeting of the experts are all activities that help enhance our skills and knowledge. If members are looking for indepth training, they can go deeper with pre-conference and post-conference sessions.

Both pre- and post-conference sessions include expert instruction on configuration and management of specific Tivoli, Tivoli Netcool and Maximo products.

Pulse attendees also get 20% off training courses for the rest of the year!

Q: What Pulse activities are special to TUC members?

Danyel: All members are invited to visit the "User Community Networking Area" in the Pulse Expo (at the end of aisle 100) to meet other members and learn what is new. While in the Expo, TUC members can pick up a special button that will identify their specific user group. We are also displaying Tivoli User Community shirts that can be ordered online. What could be cooler than showing your pride for the user community by wearing User Community logo merchandise? Don't miss out! I look forward to meeting old and new TUC members in Vegas!

So this week, the United States had a big moment. You know, the one right before Barack Obama was supposed to surrender his Blackberry. Yep, the oath. Well, technically we had two moments since he re-took the oath on Wednesday. But today is Friday, and as Mr. President has rolled up his sleeves to get to work on all his campaign promises and more, we humble IBMers continue ours.

With less than 15 days away from the second annual Pulse conference, some of us are just a tad anxious as we close in on the home stretch to February 8th. After all, Pulse 2008 was such a smashing success and we promised to make Pulse 2009 even more fantastic. That was a big promise. One we intend to make good on.

But I confess: we had a little help. From the world.

Amazing that a world with all its problems from global warming, to economic crisis to dwindling food, water, and energy resources would have the bandwidth to offer our little show a hand.You know what they say: “You want something done, give it to a busy world, right?” Or something like that, anyway.

The world may be getting busier, but it’s also getting smarter. And more instrumented and more interconnected.This realization led us to build Pulse through the lens of a busier, more challenged, but smarter planet. That’s when the Pulse team had a little moment of our own – our “light- bulb” moment, if you will.

Joining the Pulse News Network for the duration of the conference are television journalists, Forrest Sawyer and SuChin Pak, who will be breaking all the big stories at Pulse, and they’ll want to know:

“Smarter infrastructure is by far our best path to creating new jobs and stimulating growth. We at IBM were asked to map this out by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team and our research shows that a $30 billion stimulus investment in just three areas -- smart grids, health-care IT and broadband -- could yield almost one million new jobs within one year.”

Okay, okay. IBM Service Management might not be
saving the world the same way heroes in a Hollywood movie would. But unseen
heroes do exist. They may not be glamorous or even know they are heroes. You
might know some of them. You might even be one of them. And right now, they are
out in force doing their best to help businesses survive the [now official] recession.
I'm not talking about the Fed, or Congress, or anyone on Wall Street. Who then?
Not just who, but what. As in who does what.

Stay with me. I'll cut to the chase now.

In a nutshell, the digital and physical
infrastructures of the world are converging to the point that global
integration impacts every aspect of business. To run sustainable businesses,
companies need to work smarter and integrate smart choices into day-to-day
operations. IBM Service Management is made up of the smartest heroes,
technology and strategies that can help your business survive the these tough
economic times. Quite a leap in logic? Oh, ye of little faith! Miracles can
happen when you've got purpose and
innovation on your side. Want to know more? Come to Pulse for four
action-packed days at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Over 200 IBM
clients, IBM executives and industry experts, aka "the Heroes" will
showcase how IBM Service Management can deliver quality service on any scale,
while addressing some of the most prominent global fascinations, including:

*
Drowning in Data? -- Meet Tougher Service Level Requirements with Less
Infrastructure

*
Tame the Explosion of Information with IBM Information Infrastructure

*
Balancing Risk with Opportunity: Security Trends and Strategies for Business
Leaders

*
Customer Panel: Tales from the Cutting Edge of Service Management

*
Breaking Down the Barriers between Dev and Ops

*
Taking the Next Steps on Your SM Journey

Visit the Pulse Web to register while there’s
still time to save on registration. The Early Bird registration special of
$1795 ends Friday, December 5, 2008. Then stick around and learn more about the
following streams of our agenda:

If you answered
"2. It equals the sum
of its proper divisors 1,
2 and 3.",
you are incorrect because some answers are more correct than others. And since
this is the Pulse blog and not the Math blog, the most correct answer is is
"5. all of the above"!

But anyway, the
real value of a multiple choice is when it saves you money, right? And who
couldn't use it these days? This blog entry reveals the multiple options you
can choose from to save big on Pulse registration. Take your pick from the
savings options here and register for Pulse 2009 today at
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/pulse/!

Pulse 2009 has set aside a limited number of guest passes for
Pulse 2009. Contact your IBM rep to find out if you qualify for a guest pass to
Pulse 2009.

Two-Week Extension
on the Early-Early Bird Rate

The Early-Early bird rate has been extended for 2 more weeks so
you can take advantage of the $1495 rate. Use the PULSE09EEBX code when
registering, but hurry – it expires November 10, 2008.

Government Employees
save $800

Government employees can attend Pulse at the discounted rate of
$1395. There is no code - simply indicate that you are a government employee on
the registration page. All government employees will be asked to present their
government issued id at check in.This
discount cannot be combined with any other discounts or promotions.

Pulse 2008 Alumni
save $600

Did your attend Pulse 2008? If the answer is yes, then you are
eligible for an alumni discounted rate of $1595.Simply use PULSE09ALUM as the promo code on the
registration page.This discount cannot
be combined with any other discounts or promotions.

Group
Discounts

Five or more clients from the same
organization can receive $100 off the current registration price. To obtain a
special code for this discount, call (888) 987-6545 or (781) 251-7864, 9-5 p.m.
EST, Monday-Friday. The discount must be arranged prior to registration and is
taken at the time of registration.

Maybe you remember the Red Shirts scurrying around the
Swan and Dolphin during Pulse 2008, some murmuring into walkie- talkies like
007, others barking at them like marines on a mission. Well, folks, theyre
neither double agents nor the marines, but they were the Tivoli
boots-on-the-ground doing their best to make the conference everything we
promised it would be. Maybe you were even run over by a fast-moving Red Shirt
as you approached to ask where to purchase one of those highly fashionable
smocks. Months of maniacal focus on ones goal can make one behave like, well,
a maniac, if ones not very careful. But I digress . . .. If you ever wondered
where you can get one of those Pulse 2008 shirts, query no more. While we cant
offer them in red as that color is reserved for maniacs, um I mean conference
staff, you can get your version in black. Here are the details:

My apologies if you were a Red-Shirt runover-ee, and my
sincerest apologies if I was the runover-er. Id give you the Pulse 2008
Redshirt off my back to make amends if I werent positive youd be mistaken for
conference staff at Pulse 09 in Las Vegas and given a walkie-talkie to answer to.

If you were at the Pulse 2008 conference
and visited the Expo floor, you may have seen big red button logos
with the words "IBM Tivoli Accredited Business Partner" on some of our
Business Partner booths. You can get glimpses of these logos in the top right corner of the pictures below.

So what does this logo mean? It means that IBM recognizes those IBM Business Partners who are committed to helping mid-market businesses
optimize their operations and network infrastructures via systems
management, asset protection, data recovery and more with tailored
Tivoli solutions. Often, these Business Partners are our front-line
local experts and heroes who provide services in solution assessment,
customization, deployment, training and support.

I
had the pleasure of informally chatting with some of these heroes
while at the Pulse conference and hearing their stories about Lance
Armstrong, John Wood, tigers, Hummers, talent recruitment videos,
awards, and heart-stopping Pulse acoustics.

Did you miss a an education opportunity at Pulse because it conflicted with something else you wanted to attend, was booked, or maybe you just slept in too late? Not to worry! You can choose from over a dozen of our most popular courses across the Tivoli curriculum. Pulse attendees are also eligible for a 20% discount. Look for the email in your inbox, read the terms and conditions, and follow the instructions. Click here for more information: http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?pageType=page&c=a0015976

Yes, I blatantly admit it! I am one of those annoying people you hate who plays the same CD over and over and over and over again all day until you scream, "Will you please change that thing???" And I respond with, "Why?" So, what have I been listening to all day? Yup, Hootie! As I was uploading live videos from their performance at the Pulse conference, I discovered Hootie & the Blowfish has their Live in Charleston concert automatically playing on their official Web site.

I've always been a Hootie fan. My favorite songs were "Hold my hand," "Let her cry," and "Time." However, after Pulse, now I have some new favorites: "I hope I don't fall in love with you," "Desert Mountain Showdown, " and "Hey Sister Pretty." And, of course, their Pulse encore, "Keep your Hands to yourself," was pretty rocking.

You know there is a ton more - too much to list here - but this gives you a great idea of the buzz about Pulse out there. Enjoy!

"The additional IBM resources, in the form of developers, software engineers and industry experts, which we were able to add to the Maximo 7.1 development effort, meant delivering to our customers a more comprehensive offering, sooner," Bill Sawyer, vice president of Maximo Operations at IBM Tivoli Software, said in a statement. -- New York Times

On HP's US$13.9 billion EDS buy: They have to build their business on their own. Their profile is not our profile. They don't have our profile of hardware, software or services. They are a different company: big PC business, printer business, supplies business. It's a very different business than ours. -- NetworkWorld

The new Service Assurance Solution provides greater visibility and control across multi-technology, multi-vendor networks, enabling service providers to better isolate and deal with performance issues, which lowers support costs and improves overall service. -- Inc.com

"Now, having prior knowledge that Hootie would deliver the musical sendoff sparked some anticipation for the event. Surely it would provide a just reward for a week of hard work and glad-handing with colleagues, partners, and customers from abroad.I just had no idea that the 90-plus minute tour through Hooties portfolio of No. 1s would send me down a trail of sweet memories of my beloved alma mater. It did that and much more. -- Bonesville.net

Congratulations, you survived the thrilling experience of the Pulse conference in Orlando last week! :) I'm Tiffany Winman, the IBM Pulse community program manager, and I hope your Pulse experience was a magical one. ;) Now that the conference is over, you can stay in touch, in tune, and in sync--as Al likes to say--by being part of the ongoing online Pulse community. Managing contacts you made at PulseYou can manage Pulse contacts you made and help others find you by following these steps:

Send a colleague invitation to your Pulse contact (click the invitation link under the name in the person's profile)

Sharing pictures and videosYou can share photos and videos on our Pulse group in Flickr. See sampling below. We know some of you still have some great Hootie and community pics out there! :) Follow these Flickr instructions if you're willing to share with the group.

Quick note to those of you who were brave enough to do a "live stories from Pulse" video moment: I'm still uploading these to YouTube, and will send out notices to our online Pulse community once I have them done. A big thank you for your participation!

Providing feedback on the conferenceYou can also help make the Pulse conference even better in 2009 or simply have some fun by sharing your favorites at Pulse by responding to one or more of the forum topics below.

I was unable to make the Business Partner Summit because I got into town too late - but I heard I missed one heckuva a time. Thanks to Felicity Carson for providing the following summary of the largest Tivoli Business Partner Summit to-date

Over 500 Tivoli Business Partners showed their commitment to IBM service management by attending the Pulse Business Partner Summit, making it the largest gathering of Tivoli business partners to date. Al Zollar opened the keynote address and thanked our valued partner community for their outstanding contributions to the Tivoli revenue and growth numbers. Alan Ganek, Bill Kribbs and Joao Perez presented the three key themes (Business, Skills and Revenue) to further empower our partners for growth.

The highlight of the Summit Keynote was the Tivoli Deployment Accreditation initiative where the first set of 85 Tivoli accredited business partners were announced. The Tivoli Deployment Accreditation initiative recognizes business partners who have made a significant investment in skills and certification by providing three levels of accreditationnamely A Level, AA Level and AAA Level. Titan Solutions and Streamfoundry (USA)

Absolutely now get the value of becoming a Tivoli Accredited business partner. Synnex and Ingram (Canada) said This event has delivered an opportunity for IBM Business Partners targeting similar markets gain value from sharing experiences

The Business Partner Summit concluded with a spectacular VIP Backstage Party for provided an excellent opportunity to relax and unwind and network with peers, executives and subject matter experts. Attendees from Apruycus (Netherlands) Love the worldwide village aspect and the opportunity to meet with business partners from Hong Kong, and around the world.

Al Zollar and Michele Grieshaber congratulated and recognized the accredited partners as well as the winners and finalists of the first ever Tivoli 2008 Business Partner Awards. Finalists and winners were selected from more than 40 outstanding nominations:

IBM Tivoli 2008 Business Partner Innovation Award

Winner:Pirean

Finalists:eSolutions

Finalist:ReachView

IBM Tivoli 2008 Service Management Award

Winner:generationE

Finalist: Toshiba Solutions Corporation

Finalist: Deloitte & Touche

In addition, over 50 business partners requested more guidance on Webcollage program that will enable them to directly syndicate Tivoli web content to their web sites.

For the past 7 months I have been leading a team of communicators all focused on introducing Pulse to the world, more specifically IBM clients and business partners. As I am preparing to leave for Orlando, I just cant believe that all the months of preparation are over and now its time to deliver what weve been promising as the Service Management event of the year.By the way if you or someone you know has not of heard of Pulse, I want to know your hiding place so I can visit when its time to invite the world to Pulse 2009. But for now, allow me the final indulgence of sharing what I find most exciting about Pulse 2008. . .

Pulse 2008 includes a compelling agenda of comprehensive education and unique networking opportunities. There will be everything from a full day dedicated to our business partners that includes an award ceremony, to industry user group meetings and analyst panels, to a social event a la speed dating with the best and brightest Tivoli technologists.There will be many announcements, including the launching of the 5 Entry Points to Service Management to help organizations jump start Service Management in their organization. I am also very intrigued by the buzz I have been hearing about the Tivoli-turned-IBM Software Group-wide initiative to build the greenest data center possible. I felt pretty good about reducing my carbon footprint when I started working from home and switched to curly light bulbs, but I can only imagine the difference a Fortune 500 corporation can make by mobilizing its forces to combat the global climate crisis.

Who wouldnt be jazzed about hearing what seven-time tour de France champion and cancer activist Lance Armstrong has to say? Why, I just realized that in addition to us both being Austinites, athletes, and parents, now Lance and I have Pulse in common too wait theres one more: I also hate cancer. Then theres John Wood, who left a wildly successful career at Microsoft to bring literacy to the third worlds children. This is one speech I have got to hear. . . I really want to know what motivates someone to trade in use of a private jet for a yak. And of course everyone has a favorite Hootie and the Blowfish tune theyll probably play mine at Pulse since I pretty much like all of them.

In addition to all of that I have already mentioned there will be so much more to experience. To help keep you informed during the event, we are deploying online community and social networking tools in a way that we have not done before at a conference. A bunch of us on the Pulse team will be blogging so come back and visit the Pulse blog often. We're looking forward to your comments. And be sure to sign up for the Pulse Twitter for mini-blogs throughout the conference. I really hope folks will take advantage of our online community and social networking tools during and after Pulse. This is really a topic for a separate blog but incase you were wondering, here are a few benefits the new online functionalitycan provide:

Make it easier to do business with IBM and community experts

Identify important business and IT trends and opportunities

Innovate and collaborate on business ideas and solutions that matter

Create long-term face-to-face and online connections

Facilitate knowledge transfer and skills training

Discover and leverage the wisdom of the community

See you all at Pulse, and remember . . . what happens in Orlando winds up on the Pulse Blog!